Personal Scatologies

[Andrew Dinn]

David Casseres writes:

  . . .

> The thing that troubles me is the capture of the novelists, poets, etc. 
> by the academy.  It, too, is forced by our economic system, and the 
> 20th-century spectacle of novel after novel after novel *about being a 
> university professor* is truly one the more hideous effects of 
> capitalism.

  . . .

Well, having just finished David Lodge's `Small World' I'll disagree
at least to the extent that this cloud comes complete with silver
lining. And I suspect Antonia Byatt's Possession (I have a sneaking
regard for some of her other stuff too) is another honourable
exception. Did anyone else note that they both quote the same line
from Hawthorne regarding `Romance'?

As regards academics and non-academics on the list I have no
prejudices either way. I have a great admiration for the likes of
Heikki, Duffy, Krafft et al. I also have a great dislike for certain
topics to which, I believe, some academics give undue or undeserved
prominence or which they misunderstand, leading them to waste much
time and effort in pointless soliloquizing. But that's my opinion and
I expect to have to argue cogently for it or else leave the kitchen.
No different to any other bone of contention in need of a good
boiling.

And easy as it is to lay sins such as those mentioned by Steely at
certain people's feet - so much easier to argue against what you want
people to say - most of the academics on this list cannot fairly be
held guilty of them. A little tarnished around the edges, perhaps.
Maybe even somewhat spattered by the mud. But rolling in the shit,
lapping it up, no way. Even if there is a Pynchon industry in academia
(and judging by the Warwick conference it's a pretty low-budget
industry) I don't see the foax on this list as cigar-smoking
capitalists creaming it off the sweaty brows of our fellow-workers in
journalism, the education industry or anywhere else.

If you want the real villains of the piece you will have to look
elsewhere, say the board rooms of American colleges, etc. What was
that line of Pynchon's about the innocence of the minions. Sorry,
foax, but I think most of us this list are mere minions, innocent as
charged. The puppet masters don't (need to) interfere in what we have
to say.

Andrew Dinn
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And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.